Grass Tennis Club · The Rankings
Grass Tennis
The Rankings
A family of independent editorial rankings devoted entirely to natural-grass tennis: who plays it best, and which clubs are doing the most to preserve it, improve it and carry it forward.
Why we rank
Grass deserves to be judged on its own terms
Grass is where tennis began, the surface of the sport’s oldest championship and the shortest, most distinctive part of the modern season. It asks different questions of players, clubs, grounds teams and institutions, and those questions deserve rankings built specifically for the lawn.
Our player rankings ask who is best on grass now. Our club rankings tackle something that resonates in 2026: who is protecting the surface, creating new opportunities to play, investing in specialist knowledge and showing that lawn tennis has a future as well as a past.
We rank grass tennis not only to celebrate what it has been, but to recognise the people and places taking it forward.
The GTC approach
Different questions. Purpose-built rankings.
Only grass tennis
Hard-court and clay performance do not determine our grass rankings. Every list begins with the surface itself.
Method before reputation
Each ranking has published priorities appropriate to the new realities. A famous name alone is not enough.
Editorial judgement, made clear
Where a ranking is subjective, we say so. Positions are GTC editorial judgements supported by stated criteria and published reasoning.
The future counts
History matters, but so do preservation, new courts, better practices, participation and leadership that strengthen grass tennis for the next generation.
The rankings
A growing family. One surface.
We are publishing the rankings in stages. The live player rankings and the new Innovation & Stewardship Top 50 are available now. Our all-time rankings are being developed separately so that they can draw on deeper historical research and, for clubs, direct evidence submitted by the clubs themselves.
Grass-Court Player Rankings
The top men and women on grass right now, rated by Grass Tennis Club’s proprietary LAWN model and updated through the grass season.
Explore the live player rankings → Live · 2026Innovation & Stewardship
The clubs and venues doing the most to preserve, develop and advance natural-grass tennis. A subjective GTC editorial ranking that rewards commitment, court quality, innovation, participation and living grass-tennis culture.
Explore the Top 50 →All-Time Club Greats
A separate ranking of the great grass-court institutions: overall excellence, heritage, institutional standing and lasting contribution to lawn tennis. Club evidence and further research will inform the methodology before publication.
Club evidence survey and research programme in preparationAll-Time Grass Player Rankings
The great grass-court players across eras, from the pioneers of lawn tennis to the champions of today, assessed with a methodology designed specifically for historical comparison.
To be published following further historical researchHow we rate
Two live rankings. Two different methods.
The player and club rankings are deliberately not forced into the same model. One measures grass-court performance. The other is an editorial assessment of contribution to the future of the surface.
Live Player Rankings · LAWN model
Recency-weighted grass results.
Serve, slice, net play and movement built for grass.
Performance at the grass Slam, weighted above all.
Clutch performance and quick-court adaptability.
Innovation & Stewardship · editorial priorities
Protecting, restoring, creating and sustaining natural-grass tennis.
Playing standard, consistency and specialist preparation.
New projects, better practices and ideas that move grass tennis forward.
Meaningful opportunities to play, compete, coach and develop on grass.
Keeping grass-tennis knowledge and traditions alive through current activity.
The Innovation & Stewardship percentages express GTC’s editorial priorities. They are not an automated formula that mechanically determines finishing positions.
What comes next
The all-time club ranking is in preparation
We want the all-time list to rest on research with te cooperairton of clubs and the broader grass community. Before publication, Grass Tennis Club will invite clubs to submit information on their natural-grass courts, maintenance, history, programmes, preservation work and wider contribution to the game.
That evidence will inform our research and help us refine the methodology. It will not turn the ranking into a public vote: the final positions will remain an independent Grass Tennis Club editorial judgement, with the basis for those judgements made clear.
Explore now
Two rankings are live
See who is strongest on grass today, then discover the clubs and venues we believe are doing the most to secure the future of lawn tennis.
